The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani and M.M. Joshi on a petition challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict discharging them of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.

Besides the two, union Minister Uma Bharti and Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh also have been issued notice. The Allahabad High Court on May 20, 2010, absolved them of the conspiracy charges in the 22 years old case.

An apex court bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Arun Mishra issued notice as senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that a fresh application has been moved by Haji Mahboob Ahmed challenging the high court verdict.

The court also gave the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) four weeks to get the papers to support its case challenging the discharge of Advani and others.

Additional Solicitor General N.K. Kaul told the apex court that the CBI has already filed an affidavit explaining delay in filing the petition challenging the high court order.

Allowing four weeks' time, the court said it would be hearing the matter on the question of law, delay and merits.

The CBI, which had moved the apex court on February 18, 2011, nearly nine months after the Allahabad High Court verdict, is yet to persuade the court on the justification for delay of nine months in challenging the high court order.

The CBI in its appeal before the apex court has said that the high court verdict discharging Advani and others of the offence of criminal conspiracy "is inconsistent with the previous judgment rendered by the Allahabad High Court on February 12, 2001".

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court by its February 12, 2001, order had held that the trial court committed no illegality in taking "cognizance of joint consolidated charge-sheet" and "all the offences were committed in the course of the same transaction to accomplish the conspiracy".

The high court by its order had noted that the "evidence for all the offences was almost the same".

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As India does not have too many large domestic institutional investors, a well-endowed domestic pension fund will be the panacea for a robust and sustainable capital market, SEBI chairman U.K. Sinha said on Monday.

"A well endowed domestic pension fund in India will be the panacea for a robust and sustainable capital market," he said at an event organised by CII here.

According to Sinha, there is a large corpus of Foreign Institutional Investment and a huge window for long-term equity investment in the Indian capital markets for domestic pension funds which can reduce the vulnerability of capital markets.

Further, he urged the industry to look at National Pension System of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) as a social security option for their employees to ensure that large corpus of long term funds are made available for investment in capital markets.

"In spite of the new government's pro-development agenda, the enhanced investor confidence and a great budget, the primary markets in India have somehow not picked up till now," the Securities and Exchange Board of India chief said.

Speaking about alternate investment fund options available in India, he said the regulations related to Real Estate Investment Trusts (ReITs) in India are in line with some of the best in the world and has the potential to take up a substantial chunk of the capital market here.

"SEBI is coming out with regulations on Municipal Bonds very shortly and these bonds will play a very important role in the aspirational 100 Smart Cities mission of the government," he said.

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Nilesh KAMERKAR

2 years ago

For growing /developing the capital market and also for offering social security this option given in the link below, is far superior than all the options suggested above . . . लेकिन कम्बख़्त सुनता कौन है???

Terming the Indian government's decision last week to allow gas-based power units lying idle to import feed stock through e-auctions as "credit positive", rating agency Moody's on Monday said the move will benefit banks as they have significant exposure to such plants.

"The government approved measures to revive and improve the utilisation of stranded gas-based power generation plants in the country. This is credit positive for India's banks because they have significant credit exposure to such plants," the agency said in a statement here.

Power plants that use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel have been facing significant availability and pricing challenges because actual domestic production of LNG has been significantly lower than the assumptions made when the plants were set up, Moody's said.

According to the government, out of 24,150 MW gas-grid-connected power generation capacity in the country, 14,305 MW of capacity has currently no supply of domestic gas and may be considered as stranded.

A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs last week gave the go ahead that will immediately lead to the resumption of power generation to the extent of 14,000 MW.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of these measures are IDBI Bank, the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

Moody's said that importing LNG at prevailing prices has increased generation costs, which has raised prices beyond the reach of buyers.

Among Moody's rated banks, IDBI Bank has an especially high exposure to gas-based power plants and would be the key beneficiary of these measures.

SBI and ICICI Bank have exposure to the Ratnagiri Power Plant, which is the largest gas-based power plant in the country.